Tiffany’s work in mosaic, inspired by Byzantine examples he had seen abroad, dates to as early as the 1880s, when he began experimenting with iridescent glass and transparent tesserae backed with metal leaf. Mosaic decoration graced countless interiors by him, from churches to department stores. The culmination of his interest was the vast Dream Garden mosaic, created in 1915, after designs by Maxfield Parrish, for Edward Bok at the Curtis Publishing Company in Philadelphia. Tiffany may have made this shimmering garden landscape as a preliminary study for the Curtis commission. It was among the decorations that graced the Tiffany showrooms until their contents were auctioned in 1938.

Provenance

Tiffany Studios, New York, until 1938; Lillian Nassau Ltd., New York, until 1976.